---
title: 'How Professional Screenwriters Outline'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=jAY5Y9XWu4I'
video_id: 'jAY5Y9XWu4I'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 676
---

# How Professional Screenwriters Outline

> Source: [How Professional Screenwriters Outline](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jAY5Y9XWu4I)

## Summary

This transcript captures a multi-voice discussion on screenwriting, where professional writers share their diverse approaches to outlining and writing. The dialogue reveals a spectrum of methods, from detailed pre-planning to discovery writing, with a central debate on whether structure or dialogue is the most critical element of a successful script.

### Key Points

- **Structure Over Dialogue** [0:00] — One writer argues that writing is fundamentally about structure, not dialogue. Dialogue is described as 'the cherry on top'—a supplemental element that does not support the main story. The real challenge lies in building the 'scaffolding' or 'skeleton' of the story.
- **The Danger of Over-Planning Past the Middle** [0:25] — A writer explains that planning too far past the middle of the story is counterproductive. By the time the writer reaches the midpoint, the characters and story have evolved, making earlier assumptions irrelevant. The writer emphasizes that the knowledge gained during the writing process transforms the story.
- **Discovery Through Writing** [2:03] — The writer describes the goal of reaching a point where the characters guide the story, and the writing becomes exciting and unpredictable. The aim is to move away from a rigid blueprint and allow the narrative to unfold organically, with the characters 'telling' the writer what happens next.
- **The Story Beat Method** [2:43] — A writer shares a technique: starting with a page of single-line story beats (e.g., 'spaceship on the way to the Sun'). The writer then writes the script scene by scene, deleting each beat as it is covered. This process results in a first draft that is acknowledged as 'crap' but provides a foundation for revision.
- **The Author's Knowledge Constraint** [4:08] — A writer recalls a saying: 'If the author doesn't know where the story is going, the audience can't possibly know.' This underscores the belief that the writer must have a clear direction to guide the audience, even if the path is discovered along the way.
- **Detailed Visual Outlining** [4:15] — One writer uses a 'structuralist' approach, spending the initial portion of time drawing arcs, splitting out sequences, and visualizing the entire plot before writing. The writer needs to see the whole story to avoid getting 'lost in the weeds,' a process that is crucial for complex projects.
- **The Risk of Premature Outlining** [5:09] — A writer avoids outlining before writing, finding that it 'kills all ideas' and makes the process too literal. This writer prefers to generate a large amount of material first and only then outline to organize what has been discovered.
- **Rules as a Rescue, Not a Guide** [6:00] — A writer suggests that rigid rules (e.g., character establishment by page 10) are useful only when a writer is in trouble. Otherwise, they hinder creativity and lead to formulaic, uninteresting scripts. The key is to avoid making the script 'try to be like a script' and lose its individuality.
- **Sequence Outlining with Log Lines** [6:53] — One writer details a method of creating a detailed step-out : listing every scene with its setting and a log line. This allows the writer to analyze the rhythm of day/night and the flow of action. At Pixar, this is expanded into a 'sequence outline'—a 4-page document breaking the film into 15-20 sequences by act.
- **The Blueprint Analogy for Screenwriting** [9:07] — A writer compares the outlining process to architectural blueprints for a skyscraper. The 'breaking' (planning) phase is the most crucial and hardest part, while the actual writing is 'carefree' in comparison, as the outline provides a clear roadmap. This writer uses a 3x5 corkboard with index cards to build the story 'brick by brick'.

### Conclusion

The transcript reveals that there is no single 'correct' method for screenwriting. The most successful approach depends on the writer's personal process, from detailed pre-planning to writing by discovery. The consistent takeaway is that understanding and restructuring the story's foundation is often more challenging and critical than writing dialogue itself.

## Transcript

So, oddly enough people think of
writing as dialogue and to me
writing is structure. Dialogue is the
cherry on top. The cherry on top does not
support the ice cream sundae it's it's a
it's a delicious little added thing but
the real story telling the real
structuring that to me is the hard part
writing building the the scaffolding the
skeleton of the story if you will for a
long time I tried to think out
everything and the story even though I
know things would completely change as
like as I go on however now I've
realized that it doesn't do me much good
to think too much past the middle I mean
I might know where I want to go I mean I
write genre pieces so you have an idea
what the third acts gonna be yeah you
know and Kill Bill I guess she'll
probably kill Bill with him but you know
John Ruby you think you know where
you're going and you're probably right
and you have an idea of how you might
want the ending to end as for you know
for both a movie and for an audience but
for the most part you can kind of work
out more or less what's gonna get you to
the middle but to think beyond that is
kind of silly because by the time you
get to the middle when you've actually
been writing it well it's a different
story now it's a different thing now you
know you are the characters you know the
characters things that you could never
have known before you started writing
are now they're in your blood it's like
this entire month you know there is a
mythology to my movies to some degree or
another not mythology is delivered as as
I write and I might have a checklist of
things that I might want to do during
the course of the time but some of them
they are you know
become irrelevant yeah
and when other ones take their place and
some things you thought could have been
a big deal while they are a big deal
and some things you may be half the
reason you wanted to write it by the
time you get to where that would happen
and prints for something else that's not
for this but by that time you get to the
middle that's where you want to be you
want to have it be this expert you want
to be in the middle of the story you
want to know who these people are and
now with all this knowledge now you
figure out where you want to go for the
second half I'm trying to write to that
spot where I don't know what's going to
happen I'm trying to get to that trying
to get off that that that that blueprint
and I'm trying to get to that place
where now the characters are telling me
and the characters are exciting me I'd
be being disingenuous with you to say
that I kind of can construct the story I
mean I never feel like I know how to
construct the story except just like
that's a great way what you just said
like yeah dumping things on a table and
like spreading them around like that for
sure and hopefully getting lucky enough
to kind of get enough things going in a
row that feels like something worth
doing something worth telling something
worth going to shoot I open up a file
final draft and I write about a page of
story beats which would be single lines
so spaceship on the way to the Sun you
know seven characters or a door kind of
a moment so it goes on and just single
lines and the lines are the basic beats
of the story and what I've got to the
end I sort of take the cursor up to the
top of the page so I've got about a page
of lines
I'd say the kind of back up to the top
of the page and I've write the first
scene and as I reach story beats I
delete them so eventually so the script
is getting longer and the story beats
list which is only a page is getting
shorter eventually I delete the last
line and at that point I've got a full
script and that's it that's a first
draft and it will be crap
but that's okay because I know that
there's a couple of things I get from
there one is you've got something to
work with and it's getting to that point
that's often the hardest yeah the
nervous does influence Lee somebody said
that if the author doesn't know where
the story is going the audience can't
possibly know I write really
structuralist I have to start I really I
spend I spend to this the first big
chunk of time just working in little
notebooks and all I do is I draw like
arcs and split them out and see like
sequences I need to basically be able to
see the whole plot in my head before I
can sit down and actually start writing
or I'll get lost in the weeds so I plan
and plan and plan then plan and this was
like that only more so
this was even more crucial for me to
have the whole thing mapped out but then
you actually get into it and as you guys
who are writers you know you get into it
no matter how much you plan you know
it's it's like you plan out your map
through the forest looking at like the
map and in your cozy living room and
then you get in there and you're
actually hacking through the forest and
you figure out stuff doesn't work and
figure out new paths and so yeah it's
kind of a mixture I guess I don't
outline I don't outline I was well I I
mean I say that I definitely don't
outline before I start writing there is
a moment when I do outline but it's only
after I have a great deal of material I
find when I outlined before I write it
it's the fastest way to kill all my
ideas I can't um I can somehow it makes
everything quite literal for me
I've never outlined before I use index
cards it just kind of organizes my mind
I've never index carded the whole movie
because I don't think I've ever at the
point when I've started writing a
screenplay known everything that there
is to know
about the whole movie I've figured out
how it's gonna start and I have some
other things along the way but it's kind
of like walking in the dark with a
flashlight you could really only see as
far ahead of you as as the light goes I
think rules are great if you're in
trouble and if you're not in any trouble
with what you're writing they're
absolutely useless and possibly worse
than useless it may happen that every
script has it has the characters
established by page 10 and it may not I
don't think there's any reason to be
thinking about that when you're trying
to write a script and it may be that
every successful script has a reversal
and have two-thirds of the way through
and one another 1/3 of the way through I
don't know it's not really an I don't
see what you're gonna I don't I don't
think that kind I think that kind of
thing I think every time I read a script
and it goes off it's because at that
point the script is trying to be like a
script and it's not and it's at that
exact moment when it loses its
individuality and it's interest I mean
what I do is I do a very detailed step
out under the story and then you break
it down to like whatever all the scenes
that need to be there I go and I put in
all along all the scene settings of
every scene so I know where you are and
at what time you know and actually it's
good to figure out so the the rhythm of
day and night in in movies I mean Little
Miss Sunshine is three days most films
are like a few days and you want this
rhythm between day and night you don't
want to be cutting from day to day you
know from one day to the next day you
want to be moving up and down and so
I'll go through and just do all the log
lines not a log lines all those scene
lights log lines and just put them in
and you can see you can even see at that
point if something if there's an action
sequence that's too long or if there's
something that you could Oh there could
be another scene in here and once you've
got all you know you got your 50 slug
lines or whatever they are your 50
scenes then you just can go ahead and
put your dialogue into them and what I
started doing at Pixar now is doing what
I call sequence outline which is you
break the film down into you know
fifteen or twenty sequences and I do it
on four pieces of paper so it is a first
act on one piece of paper which is the
title of the sequence and then what
happens in it and usually you have five
or six sequences in your first act
and then the second page is the second
quarter of the film what you'll take you
up to your midpoint the third page is
the third quarter and then the last page
and then you have your whole film is on
four pages but it breaks down it by ACT
basically you know you get to the end of
the first page you get the end of the
first act and you can just look at stuff
and and because it's broken down by
sequence you can figure out you know
this right here can go over here you
know you're able to visually see the
whole film and I find that really
helpful in terms of moving stuff around
but with index cards I always feel like
it's just too much it's just clutter
everywhere you know on the floor of your
apartment and it's better to just be
able to put four sheets of paper in
front of you and figure out why
something isn't working or not I'm such
a strong believer in knowing where
you're going before you start out that
hopefully once you've and inevitably
things change you know I mean that's
what you just things change but
hopefully you'll at least get to the end
of your first draft you know with a
semblance of what you started out trying
to do it's a big deal for me
I can usually look at it outline which
is usually about you know it's like I'll
be able to just have scene headings you
know and know her in her office or
something like that where she realizes
this or gets the first message or
whatever it is and that will that will
go for about three pages you know of
that and I can usually start to see the
rhythms and see what's wrong with with
the piece and what needs to be thought
more about we would sit in front of a
corkboard three feet by five feet with a
big thing of thumbtacks and a big thing
of index cards and a whole bunch of
sharpies magic markers and we'd sit down
and we say okay what's the teaser but
you know with any build it brick by
brick each card represents a plot beat
not necessarily a scene but you know
three or four six eight cards might
represent one scene and by the end of it
you filled up this entire three foot by
five foot cork board with a teaser and
and
the four act structure sitting there
together or alone alone as much harder
still and figuring out each plot beat is
essentially that the good analogy I
suppose is a bunch of engineers sitting
around on their drafting tables or their
communal drafting table and drawing the
design thus drawing the architectural
drawings for a skyscraper then you got
to go build a skyscraper which is a huge
amount of man hour and labor and you
know all of that but you can't build
that skyscraper unless you got the
architectural blueprints to begin with
and to us an actual sitting down and
writing is it's kind of carefree
compared to the breaking because I've
got this outline I've got these these
index cards and I know you know what
happens next so the writing is a
important part of it but it's not the
hardest part and it's not to me the most
crucial part
you